On Midsummer Eve, too, you can always see the devil, if
you will go into a garden at midnight. He is invariably found standing
near a mustard-plant. His reason for adopting this posture has not been
ascertained; perhaps in the chilly air of the upper world he is
attracted by the genial warmth of the mustard. Various forms of
divination are practised by people in the Azores on Midsummer Eve. Thus
a new-laid egg is broken into a glass of water, and the shapes which it
assumes foreshadow the fate of the person concerned. Again, seven
saucers are placed in a row, filled respectively with water, earth,
ashes, keys, a thimble, money, and grass, which things signify travel,
death, widowhood, housekeeping, spinsterhood, riches, and farming. A
blindfolded person touches one or other of the saucers with a wand and
so discovers his or her fate. Again, three broad beans are taken; one is
left in its skin, one is half peeled, and the third is peeled outright.
The three denote respectively riches, competence, and poverty. They are
hidden and searched for; and he who finds one of them knows accordingly
whether he will be rich, moderately well-off, or poor. Again, girls take
slips of paper and write the names of young men twice over on them.
These they fold up and crumple and place one set under their pillows and
the other set in a saucer full of water. In the morning they draw one
slip of paper from under their pillow, and see whether one in the water
has opened out.
Pages:
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350